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Battle at Triton
The Battle at Triton was the first battle of the Kuiper War, the Human attempt to expel troublesome pirates from the Sol System. It was primarily an orbital battle fought within the gravity well of Triton, the largest moon of Neptune. Triton's strategic value was questionable, but the Task Force from Earth had detected a fuel tanker under pirate control moving in the area, possibly to set up some sort of base or outpost on Triton (perhaps as an early warning system). A small patrol detachment was sent with the goal of destroying the fuel tanker. Events Opening salvos The patrol consisted of a single Star Frigate-type ship, an Elysium-class, which was an armed airplane tender, able to carry two atmospheric craft on its sides, and a reasonable armament of two cannons and swarm missiles. The heavy fighters it brought to bear were two of the first of such craft ever built by mankind - the Würger C-1, equipped with heavy rapid-fire coilguns and six R-44X missile pods. What was expected to be an easy fight rapidly went downhill. The patrol was outnumbered by somewhat lighter craft, and the convoy was well defended. The pirates' fighters opened fire from about 212 km away, which was well beyond the effective range of the R-44X missiles, who could only effectively lock on targets up to 170 km away with any great reliability. With the discharge of the missiles detected and much earlier than suspected, the Würger C-1 pilots took evasive actions, but found it impossible to shake off the missiles. In a daring move, the two planes initiated their afterburners and went full throttle forward, at a speed that would close the 200km gap between the two forces in less than 20 seconds. They hoped this would throw off the missiles by forcing them to take an extreme detour to keep up. Dogfight The two sides were now closed at about 31 km from each other. The plan worked, and the missiles stalled their engines when forced to take such an exotic detour. At this range, missiles would be very deadly, and the human heavy fighters fired off several missiles. Unfortunately, the missiles detonated prematurely, loitering the orbit of Triton with explosions of clustered missile parts. The pirates were quick to retaliate, firing off two missiles for each of their opposition, while one of their own fighters sped off to combat the human star frigate. The pirate missiles were off-target, however, and turned too late to impact the patrol fighters. With both sides having exhausted their missile weapons (except for the single pirate fighter en-route to engage the frigate) and having little effect, it came time to use guns. From about 22 km, the heavy fighters unleashed their extremely powerful rapid-fire Coilguns first. With concentrated fire, they were able to score hits on and severely damage a pirate craft, completely decimating its left side and meaning it would need repairs to be a threat again. The impacts of the heavy rounds threw the craft off-course and it began to slowly tumble away. Some of the rounds tore through the pilot's cabin and killed him, rendering the craft useless for the duration of the battle, until it could be recovered. The pirates were quick to fire back, once they calibrated their cannons and turned to face the patrol fighters. Rather than concentrate their fire, they tried to score hits on both patrol fighters at once. With some delay, the pirates confirmed a kill, and the plane's two pilots had ejected and were on a free-fall course for the surface of Triton. The other patrol fighter lost a wing, and would never be able to fly in an atmosphere again, but would still be useful here. The pilots of the last standing fighter watched as their star frigate was helpless against the pirate fighter attacking it, with two missile hits destroying its turrets, and the frigate's retaliatory missiles detonating too early. In a last ditch attempt, the patrol fighter turned its guns at the fuel tanker and fired away. The soft armour and volatile core of the tanker would be its demise, and with that the fighter turned tail and went maximum speed to try and rendezvous with the task force fleet. The other two pilots descended to Triton and, while surviving the initial touchdown, were stranded and failed to make contact with the task force, and are assumed to have died of starvation or to have committed suicide. A rescue operation was planned, once the other plane reported back and said that there were survivors on Triton, but was delayed. Legacy The engagement at Triton demonstrated the weaknesses of human pilots in a strategic sense. The loss of the two pilots on the surface of Triton and the inability to rescue them was seen both as a tradegy and something telling of the limits of human technology. Before the war, military leaders had hypothesized that drones would pilot atmospheric fighters by 2240. Within a month after the battle, however, technicians and programmers rapidly set to developing an AI capable of maneuvering, firing weapons, and making quick decisive decisions, and within a year, all fighter pilots were fired. This was important. When fighting air battles in an atmosphere on a planet, it is possible to recover pilots, and this makes it reasonable to use human pilots as it means that experienced, veteran manpower could possibly be maintained and utilized for a prolonged period. In space, however, it would be extremely difficult to recover pilots, as was proven at Triton, meaning that two of the four now most experienced pilots in the task force were lost and that diffusal of information and training to new recruits would be much slower. Category:Battles Category:Space battles